July 3rd to July 5th - Lost in the Mountains/School Escape/Language Pledge

Man! I didn't update the past three days of excitement as I lived at West Lake Youth Hostel.

Two days ago (on July 3rd), my parents wanted me to have a great time at Hangzhou before I was sent to school. They decided we would go changing more dollarsfor RenMinBi, then go shopping for Hangzhou de te se (specialties). The three treasures ofHangzhou are Longjin Tea (Green Tea), pearls, and the silk. Somehow we met a local whotold us that the waterfall was a sight not to be missed, only to end up hikingin the mountains where the farmers gathered the leaves for the Longjin Cha. We ended up gettinglost in the Longjin mountains, buying tons of tea from random farmers, nearly getting connedby someone who told to ride his car to freedom, and getting conned by a guy who broughtus to a pearl store for free who probably got a big commission because my mom spentloads of money. We did meet a kind lady who looked like she was my age but we found outshe was 45 years old. We also bought tea from her as well. It had to be the best tea I've evertasted because you could smell the taste before you drank it. Her neighbor had a birdthat could say "ni hao" and my dad became really excited. He told me a longwinded storyabout birds that could speak chinese, but I don't remember much because I was tired after walking for six hours.We tried to leave the pearl store (with directions from a police officer),but we ended walking through a highway tunnel designed for cars to drive 50 km/hour.We came out in a very vegetated area and none of the taxis picked us up becawuse taxis only pick people up at designated locations. This was the first time I've seen my mom lose her sanity. She normally doesn't walk so much in one day. Somehow we walked far enoughto civilization to a bus stop where we went to a bank to change money for a 3 o clock lunchbreak. It was a really weird day. That night we went to Lei Feng Ta and forgot all about ourtroubles. Interestingly enough, I caught every image on film, so that's what makes theevent so memorable. I continued to play it over and over again.

On July4th
I missed Mei Guo Du Li Jie! I ate my last breakfast of Ramen with my parents, and we decidedto take lots of pictures at Xi Hu since we became so familiar with the long stretch of the lake.We walked from the vegetated side to the industrial side of Xi Hu and went to Steak-Kingbecause we thought we deserved the food after the walk, although the walk was nothingcomparable to the day before. Then they drove a taxi to my school. I thought it was alotcloser to the West Lake, but it ended up across a bridge in a place that resembledShanghai. It was much polluted and more developed than the other side of Hangzhou. I'm in Zhejiang University of Technology, not Zhejiang University. As a place thatbreeds engineers, the guy and girl bell curve is highly skewed to the left. My parentsdropped off my stuff and nearly said their goodbyes until Jeremy said that today was arrival day,tomorrow would be orientation. I convinced my parents that due to the lack of internet access, I had to go back and take advantage of the benefits of living at the West Lake Youth Hostel.They decided to take some of my belongings back to the hostel, where I had a great omeletteand a traveler's club sandwich made by a chef my age. The reason why I like the hostel so much is the people who run the hostel are college students that decided they had a passionto start this up, so they charge really low and work really hard to make their dreams a reality. For instance, the staff of these students literally work there every day. Oneguy says all he does is clean because he has to to make customers happy. Dude that's patience.My last movie was a bootlegged version of Pirates of the Carribean. I thought aboutthe Harry Potter Premiere that I would be missing, but its ok because its not like I'm missingout on an opportunity of self improvement.

July 5th
My parents dropped me off. It wasn't what I would call bittersweet because they didn't kissme goodbye or anything, they just left although they said they would stay until I finished wan fan.I hung out with my roommate Xue1fang1. We went to Xihu againbecause apparently everyone wanted to go there. I went there every freakin day in Hangzhou,but I agreed to go because it felt like my turf. It wasn't a big deal but I realize I should've went somewhere else and alone to explore bus alternatives to learn the city. The language pledge has been implemented.That means I can write english but all my conversations are in chinese. Yup! The onlygray area is when I speak to my family in Chaozhou. It isn't English, but if someone in my program debates this, I can lose the privilege of speaking my local dialect. My Chaozhouhas become alot stronger since I started traveling. That's because I'm surrounded by my parents 24/7 and I can seem to pull words out of a hat that I've never used before. It's alsosomething I've relied on while I have been on campus because I can't speak Englishwithin earshot of other participants and roommates. It's hard. I learned you really haveto earn your stripes to learn mandarin. Its not like oh I'm in this country and I knowit quickly. I really have to think about how to complete sentences in a new way and expressmyself. Today I heard a westerner speak English. It didn't sound right in my ears. Ah I'm starting to think in Chinese after the first day!

I have alot of crap on my palm pilot, more blurbs to come!